jba Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 any experience out there on above. you have all been on about fuel costs but no one seems to have tried the above solutions. about 10% improvement would save about £130/year on 6000 miles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted January 17, 2011 Share Posted January 17, 2011 Motorcaravanners normally seem to choose 'remapping' (either directly or via an add-on unit) because they want extra power, rather than as an attempt to improve fuel consumption. When improved fuel consumption results as a by-product of remapping, it will be because the motorcaravanner is able to maintain his/her original driving style but using higher gears (hence lower revs) than previously. If the increased engine power is actually exploited to go faster A-to-B than before, it's most unlikely that there will be fuel consumption benefits. Most motorcaravanners could make significant reductions in their motohomes' fuel consumption if they optimised their driving technique to save fuel - much more than 10% This was very apparent last year in France, when the fuel strikes were on and I was cruising back to a Normandy ferry-port with a feather-light foot on the accelerator. As my driving doesn't involve a large mileage nowadays, I'm not particularly concerned over how much fuel my vehicles use, so I seldom bother attempting to check fuel consumption. However, as I had time on my hands and a good reason to do it, I did check my Hobby's mpg consumption (not so easy with a kilometres odometer) during the French jouney and it was around 35mpg. That's probably 5mpg more than I normally achieve and I'm sure I could have got close to 40mpg if I had been desperate to save fuel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Collings Posted January 17, 2011 Share Posted January 17, 2011 Driving with economy in mind helps but I believe the reason that economy always seems better (auto routes aside) in France has more to do with the lack of traffic and longer distances between urban areas . There is much less stopping and starting and general use of brakes. Iam wary of chipping for LCVs. Particularly on the continent 'vans can spend long periods at full throttle climbing over mountains. Burning more fuel generates more heat stressing components like pistons, exhaust valves, head gaskets and the cooling system generally. Its not so much a problem with a car as maximum power is rarely used for long periods. I prefer watching the scenery to checking the temperature gauge allthe time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scramblers Posted January 18, 2011 Share Posted January 18, 2011 With my first motorhome, it was based on a Fiat 2.0 jtd, on any hill the speed quickly dropped so I had to move into 2nd gear and watch every vehicle pass me. I cured it by having the engine "chipped" by TB Turbo at Lancaster. It increased the power by 25% and hills became a lot less of a problem. I had the motorhome for 7 years and it never caused any problems. I did not notice any great increase in mpg but at least I could keep up with the other traffic on hills and not remain as a mobile chicane! PS - I have just checked and unfortunately TB Turbo has now fallen victim to the recession and are no longer trading. Maybe some other member can recommend a good company. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Collings Posted January 18, 2011 Share Posted January 18, 2011 Hi Scrambler, As a point of interest how many miles did your engine do after chipping. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted January 18, 2011 Share Posted January 18, 2011 scramblers - 2011-01-18 11:44 AM ...PS - I have just checked and unfortunately TB Turbo has now fallen victim to the recession and are no longer trading. Maybe some other member can recommend a good company. This company (assuming it is still trading) advertises as being run by an ex-director of TB Turbo: http://www.power4economy.co.uk/vans_motorhomes.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scramblers Posted January 18, 2011 Share Posted January 18, 2011 George Collings - 2011-01-18 12:48 PM Hi Scrambler, As a point of interest how many miles did your engine do after chipping. Hi George, I completed over 40,000 miles travelling throughout Western Europe, Scandinavia and parts of Eastern Europe. No problems, always started first time and still with the original starter battery. The only maintenance required was the annual service and MOT carried out by BT Fleet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Collings Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 Thanks for the reply Scrambler. Time enough to have found any weaknesses. Could it be that the basic toughness of Italian motors derives from Latin driving habits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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